Work Continues on Sea Wall Refurb

Repairs From 6th to 8th Street

By Patrick Cronin

Hampton Union, Friday, March 20, 2009

[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]

Crews begin repair work on another section of the North Beach seawall from 6th Street to 8th Street.

HAMPTON -- The state Division of Parks and Recreation announced this week that the long awaited project to repair another section of the deteriorating sea wall at North Beach is finally under way.

Cape Ann Construction of North Andover, Mass., started working on the project to repair another 300 feet of the wall (between 6th Street and 8th Street) on Monday, March 16. Seacoast Park Supervisor Brian Warburton said the project should hopefully be completed by the first week of July.

"We are very happy to see this project finally get off the ground," Warburton said. "We had some delays, but its good to see this project continue to move forward."

Warburton said the project will start where repairs left off in 2007. At that time, 300 feet of the wall was repaired from 5th Street to about 6th Street.

Funding for the latest repairs to the wall was secured with the help of state Rep. Nancy Stiles, R-Hampton. Stiles successfully amended the state's capital budget two years ago to add another $1 million to repair the wall that hadn't been maintained since it was constructed in the 1930s.

She did so at the urging of 900 residents who signed a petition started by North Beach residents Kathy and Larry Feltz, demanding the entire project be completed.

Originally, state park officials thought the project was just going to be a "patch" job, but once crews started working they discovered the damage was more severe. The wall is deteriorating from the inside.

Warburton said when the latest section of the wall is completed, it will leave roughly 3,000 feet still in disrepair. The projected cost for repairs to the remaining sections of the wall is $11 million.

"We would like to see the entire project get done, but right now, there isn't any more funding after this," he said.

Stiles is currently working on an amendment to put another $1 million in the state's capital budget to keep the project going.